A disaster recovery plan gives you a script to follow after an event such as a flood or a storm halts your business, says Dean Tremblay, who manages professional services in Ottawa with Toronto-based Blackiron Data. But there are ways, he adds, to prevent business stoppages altogether. That’s where a business continuity plan comes into play.
Compared with disaster recovery, Tremblay says, “Business continuity is more of an executive-level conversation [aimed at] keeping the business running and preventing failure from occurring in the first place.”
To help you keep ahead of the game, Tremblay offers the following business continuity advice:
> Store documents electronically
Use a digital document management system as an alternative to paper storage.
“We’ve been chasing the holy grail of the paperless office for some time,” Tremblay says, “but organizations are still heavily paper-based.”
You might start by building your own digital storage by scanning paper documents into your system. Or you can outsource that process to one of the many service providers that specialize in digitizing documents.
As always, be sure to consult your firm to ensure that you following proper compliance guidelines.
> Consider the cloud
Cloud computing technology offers another way to keep information safe and accessible in the event of a disaster or other unfortunate event.
Cloud computing services store your information on the web in a way that makes it available to you — wherever you are — at all times. It can prevent your business from coming to a screeching halt in the event of a disaster.
> Protect your infrastructure
In the same vein as cloud computing, you might also consider a co-location plan.
This strategy involves outsourced data centers that store your information and your hardware. This could be the answer you are looking for if you are concerned about theft of a main network computer or hard drive, for example.
Either way, a co-location plan keeps that part of your digital infrastructure out of harm’s way.
> Protect against digital attacks
While taking steps to protect your practice from natural disasters or unforeseen events, also be aware of potential digital attacks, such as malware and Trojan horses.
Tremblay recommends that you make sure you have up-to-date antivirus software and fortified firewalls to protect your network.
Also, ensure that you are using only licensed software, have all of your security patches in place and have an anti-spam strategy to prevent “phishing” through your email.
Says Tremblay: “Those are the standard protections that all organizations should be adhering to.”
This is the second instalment in a two-part series on creating a disaster plan.